In 1328 the
Capetian
monarchy had its
first succession
crisis, which
led directly to
the ruinous
Hundred
Years War
with the
English. Charles
IV, last of the
line, had only
daughters as
heirs, and when
it was decided
that France
could not be
ruled by a
queen, the
English king,
Edward
III , whose
mother was
Charles's
sister, claimed
the throne of
France for
himself.
The French
chose Philippe,
Count of Valois
, instead, and
Edward
acquiesced for a
time. But when
Philippe began
whittling away
at his
possessions in
Aquitaine,
Edward renewed
his claim and
embarked on war.
Though, with its
population of
about twelve
million, France
was a far richer
and more
powerful
country, its
army was no
match for the
superior
organization and
tactics of the
English. Edward
won an outright
victory at Crécy
in 1346 and
seized the port
of Calais as a
permanent
bridgehead. Ten
years later, his
son, the Black
Prince, actually
took the French
king, Jean le
Bon, prisoner at
the battle of
Poitiers .
Although by
1375 French
military
fortunes had
improved to the
point where the
English had been
forced back to
Calais and the
Gascon coast,
the strains of
war and
administrative
abuses, as well
as the madness
of Charles VI,
caused other
kinds of damage.
In 1358 there
were insurrections
among the
Picardy
peasantry (the jacquerie
) and among the
townspeople of
Paris under the
leadership of Étienne
Marcel. Both
were brutally
repressed, as
were subsequent
risings in Paris
in 1382 and
1412.
The king's
madness led to
the formation of
two rival
factions,
following the
murder of his
brother, the
duke of Orléans,
by the duke of
Burgundy. The Armagnacs
gathered round
the young Orléans,
and the other
faction round
the Burgundians
. Both factions
called in the
English to help
them, and in
1415 Henry V of
England
inflicted
another crushing
defeat on the
French army at Agincourt
. The
Burgundians
seized Paris,
took the royal
family prisoner
and recognized
Henry as heir to
the French
throne. When
Charles VI died
in 1422, Henry's
brother, the
duke of Bedford,
took over the
government of
France north of
the Loire, while
the young king
Charles VII
ineffectually
governed the
south from his
refugee capital
at Bourges.
At this point
Jeanne d'Arc
arrived on the
scene. In 1429
she raised the
English siege of
the crucial town
of Orléans and
had Charles
crowned at Reims.
Joan fell into
the hands of the
Burgundians, who
sold her to the
English,
resulting in her
being tried and
burnt as a
heretic. But her
dynamism and
martyrdom raised
French morale
and tipped the
scales against
the English:
except for a
toehold at
Calais, they
were finally
driven from
France
altogether in
1453.
By the end of
the century, Dauphiné,
Burgundy,
Franche-Comté
and Provence
were under royal
control, and an
effective
standing army
had been
created. The
taxation system
had been
overhauled, and
France had
emerged from the
Middle Ages a
rich, powerful
state, firmly
under the
centralized
authority of an
absolute
monarch.
